Inbound Marketing Strategy

3 Website Traffic Ideas that Make You Look like a Rookie

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How much website traffic do you need?

According to HubSpot, the median number of unique weekly visitors for a 6-10 person B2B company is about 124, and about 276 for B2C companies.

But that doesn’t really mean anything…

Benchmarking like this gives you an idea, but it doesn’t give you the complete picture.

So here’s how you can find it…

Reverse-Engineer Your Success

How much do you want to make each month?

And how many new leads or customers do you want?

Pick a target, an end goal, and then back it out…

If you want 10 new sales, and your average conversion rate is 2%, then you’ll need 500 visits.

Of course, you’ll probably need much more if you want to grow.

But how are you going to get that many?

How are you going to go beyond the “average” and really use online marketing to increase business?

The answer depends on a few factors.

But here are three website traffic ideas that you shouldn’t rely on…

Idea #1: You’re going to get “free” traffic from Google.

This first myth usually comes down to ignorance.

Because you think you can either (a) outsmart Google, or (b) that traffic will just flow naturally from search engines.

And both reasons couldn’t be more wrong.

Google is one of the most profitable and most innovative companies in the world. They’re leading the way in developing artificial intelligence products that have only been imagined in science fiction movies.

Do you seriously think you, or your $200/month “SEO consultant”, will outsmart them forever?

After a few months, they’ll just release another algorithm update like Panda or Penguin, and you’ll drop from the rankings immediately.

And there are more than 600 million active websites on the planet. So new ones are like a needle in a haystack.

If you build it… then no one will even know it exists!

You can’t wait around, hoping and wishing for traffic. You have to go out and get it.

Idea #2: You’re going to set-up a Facebook page.

Setting up a Facebook page (or any social account for that matter) is a great start.

You can send it to your family and friends to check out. Get a few new “Likes”.

And then… what?

After the initial fanfare dies down… what are you going to do?

Spam your friends and family every single day?

And what happens when Facebook’s EdgeRank kicks in, and you can only reach 10% of those people.

You’ll see a small trickle at best.

Using Facebook (or social media) to send updates and “engage” like this is great. But it’s a terrible way to grow, get more traffic, and grow your business.

Idea #3: You’re just going to use AdWords.

I can’t begin to tell you the amount of times I meet smart people who think they’ll rely only on AdWords to get more business.

Really? Let’s do some quick math…

How much will you be paying for clicks on your ad? (In competitive industries, I’ve seen this as high as $50 per click!!!)

For argument’s sake, let’s say $5.00 because it’s relatively low (and it’s an easy number to multiply).

Now… how much traffic do you need to make a sale?

The average conversion rate for most websites is around 1% (and for new ones, this could be even lower).

So that means you’ll need 100 visits to get one buyer. That will cost you $500.

How much is your average sale? Can you really afford to pay $500 to acquire one customer?

Maybe you’re good at conversion rate optimization, so your conversion rate is 2% and you get 2 customers (at a cost of $250 per customer).

But of course, one customer isn’t enough to build a business.

Let’s say your average sale is worth $500. And you want a target monthly revenue of $5,000 minimum. Now you’ll need to get 10 customers each month.

That means you’ll need 500 visits (at $5 per click and 2% conversion rate), which will cost you $2,500 up-front, every single month.

But wait, it gets even worse for service companies or more expensive products.

Because chances are, you can’t get someone to sign up for your expensive package immediately.

So that means you have to send them to a “Quote Request” form and get them to opt-in. You then have to back out and figure out how many leads you can close. And you’ll have to come up with a Cost per Lead and a Cost per Client.

But I think you get the point…

For most companies, solely relying on AdWords for customers is unsustainable.

It works brilliantly. It’s among the best performing marketing or advertising channels you can find — anywhere.

But on a per customer basis, it’s expensive. And you need a lot of capital up-front to fund your growth.

The Bottom Line

New websites are difficult to promote.

Because nobody knows who you are. And no one trusts you.

They don’t see your brand on TV, or hear about you on the radio.

So getting your first 1,000 or 2,000 visits is incredibly hard, and takes a TON of work.

But you can do it.

Get long-term ROI.

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